Jungle Karma
by Starhawk
Summary: At the beginning of Jungle Fury, the new team had to get used to doing a lot of things together.
1. Sleeping Together

**Jungle Karma**

**by Starhawk**

**1. Sleeping Together**

They were cool, RJ decided. Slightly smarter than he'd been at eighteen, but still convinced that someone out there had all the answers. That all they had to do was find that person, please them, and then all the secrets would be revealed.

If they ever did find a person like that, RJ hoped they would tell him who it was. In the meantime, he would assume the answers were within and search accordingly. Even if it meant answering a call from the Order of the Claw one more time.

"Hey, RJ!" Casey called. "Can I sleep over here?"

He didn't open his eyes. "Go wherever the spirit moves you, my friend."

"Why do you get to sleep there?" Theo's voice demanded. "I should--I mean, Lily should get first choice. She's the girl."

"Wait, what did you just say?" Lily jumped on him. "Now that we're back in the real world we're suddenly different? I'm confused."

"No, I'm just saying--" Even Theo's long pauses were less than a heartbeat. "If we're all living here, then you should have some personal space. Because you're a girl. You might want to do... girl things."

"What if I want to do guy things?" Casey asked.

"We're all guys," Theo said. He sounded impatient. But then, Theo always sounded sort of impatient. The impatient vibe just vibrated right off of him. "You can do guy things anywhere."

"So you're saying I should feel uncomfortable about being a girl in front of all you manly men?" Lily suggested. "But you guys, you're all the same, so you're fine?"

"What if I'm gay?" Casey added. "Does that mean I have to have personal space too?"

"There's sleeping rooms under the windows on either side," RJ remarked, trying not to smile. Never judge a book by its cover. He should remember to listen to himself when he spoke. Even when he didn't, except he would probably have to listen harder then.

Or maybe not as hard. If his words weren't drowning out what he was saying.

The kids' exclamations were happy and forgiving and he did let himself smile, then. It didn't take much to make them happy. That was good. He didn't have much, really. Maybe more than they were used to, but if they didn't get over that whole "master" thing they were going to have problems.

"Call this side!" he heard Casey shout.

"Seconded!" Lily's voice rang out.

"What do you mean, seconded?" Casey wanted to know. "You can't second a call. That doesn't make any sense."

"Why do you get to sleep over there?" Theo demanded. "And why do you want to sleep with Casey, anyway?"

"Because he's gay and therefore more likely to understand my girl things," Lily informed him. "Also, you're too neat. I'd trip over the clean."

"You should get one side and we should take the other," Theo argued. He didn't pay any attention to her "reason." "You're not allowed to intimidate him into working for you, you know."

"Oh, is that why you want to sleep with me?" Casey asked, possibly talking to Theo. There was a pause, and then, "That sounds so wrong."

"I don't want to sleep with anyone!" Theo exclaimed. "You're all twelve years old!"

"Good," Casey agreed. "That works out. Lily and me over here, and then you can have your personal space. To do your short person things."

"My what!" Theo sounded outraged.

"Good night, Theo," Lily singsonged. "Sleep tight!"

"Don't let the tall bugs bite," Casey added. "Or maybe you should. It's not too late for a growth spurt."

"I could kick your butt, cub."

RJ opened his eyes at that. Contrary to his tone, though, Theo was actually smiling. Casey just laughed. "Maybe," he said, "but you wouldn't have anyone to hand you a towel after you were done."

Theo gave him a tiny salute, and that seemed odd, because the order was really more into bowing than saluting. "Maybe next time."

Casey lifted his chin, but it was more an acknowledgment than a challenge. He gave the distinct impression of having waved, despite the fact that he hadn't moved his hands at all. RJ squinted at him, tilting his head a little, because there was a funny haze around him sometimes--

Just for a moment. It was gone when he looked more closely. And wasn't that just the nature of things, that trying to touch the intangible, to hold it in your hand... like the monkeys reaching for the moon's reflection in the water. Trying to hold it made it disappear.

All things in time, he thought.


	2. Working Together

**Jungle Karma**

**by Starhawk**

**2. Working Together**

He'd forgotten how early the Pai Zhua clan was. Or maybe not forgotten so much as internalized the sunrise--and the solitude that usually came with it. The solitude, yes. That was the issue.

It wasn't that he hadn't expected the Rangers to be up with the dawn. It was more that it hadn't occurred to him that one or more of them might be using the loft's only bathroom. He stood in front of the closed door, pondering the possibilities.

Theo, he decided at last. Lily would be singing. And Casey...

Well, suffice it to say that he didn't think it was Casey.

RJ padded down the back stairs, flinging open the outside door and taking a deep breath of morning air. The almost morning air. Predawn morning air. He grabbed a handful of seed from the tin by the door and tossed it down for the alley birds, leaving the door open behind him while he stretched his way across the kitchen and out to the Jungle Karma bathrooms.

He flipped the lock on the front door on his way back. He didn't like to lock it at all, but people wandered in at all hours if he didn't. Luckily, they got discouraged easily. Just having a lock on the front door seemed to be enough, so he hadn't bothered with the other ones. Which was good, because he wasn't totally sure where the key was.

He fired up the ovens, retrieved his apron and hat from the peg where he sometimes remembered to leave them, and started on the dough. There was something existential about pizza, and folding a perfect circle into a calzone seemed kind of like a metaphor for all the hidden parts of the universe. Higher dimensions? Or just the things no one noticed?

The crew team liked calzones for breakfast. And breadsticks. He wouldn't forget the breadsticks this time.

"Hi RJ!" The purple kitchen door banged open and Alicia came rolling through, skates spinning neatly as she reached for the door and caught it too late. "Oops. Sorry! What's for breakfast?"

"I think," RJ said thoughtfully, holding up a floured finger to square the doorway, "we should open all the doors this morning. For better energy flow."

"You got it!" Tipping one skate up on her heel brake, she kicked the doorstop into place with the other and whipped her apron off the pegs. "Back in a sec!"

There was a crash at the front door.

Too late, RJ reflected.

"Marcus!" Alicia yelled, flying away. "Learn to stop!"

"Or," RJ said aloud to an empty kitchen. "Learn to go only when you want to." He considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Yes... that's good advice."

"RJ?" It was Lily's voice that came over the railing first. "Everything okay down here?"

"Do we have customers?" Casey called, his voice easy through their footsteps on the stairs. He had a funny way of projecting. His words sounded odd when he yelled, sometimes.

"Are you even open this early?" Theo demanded. He was right there with them, the three of them clattering into the kitchen with bright colors and a sort of familiar level of enthusiasm.

Bright colors. RJ studied them for a moment, wondering why they were wearing their training clothes. They'd left the jackets upstairs, but they were wearing t-shirts with the Order of the Claw symbol on the front and they didn't have any--

Oh. They didn't have any sneakers. Or clothes. Or anything except what they'd shown up with yesterday, which wasn't very much.

"Ah," he said, lifting both hands to frame them for a moment. He should probably look at them more closely. "You're going to want something to wear."

"RJ, do you want us to eat or get the chairs down and the tables set up first?" Alicia was back, skidding through the kitchen to the baker's table while Marcus ghosted into the doorway behind her, helmet dangling from his fingers. He was actually quite light on his feet when there weren't wheels between him and the ground.

"Oh," Alicia added belatedly. "Hi."

"Hi," Lily answered, lifting her hand to wave.

"Uh, hello?" Casey managed to make the greeting a question.

Theo just looked confused. "Do you have other students?"

Marcus slid his apron out from under his helmet as he replaced one with the other on the pegs. He gave a half-wave, used to RJ's visitors by now. "Marcus," he said, indicating himself. "Alicia," he added, pointing to her. "Breakfast?"

"Yes," RJ agreed. "Help yourself. We'll be... training today. This is Lily--" He went down the line. "Casey, and Theo. They've agreed to help out while they're here.

"Everyone who works here eats free," he added, holding out his arms to encompass the entire kitchen. "Please, fuel the spirit. Fuel the body. Just make sure the body serves the spirit, not the other way around."

"Thanks, RJ!" Alicia was already helping herself to half a calzone. "Crew's on their way; are you guys gonna be out on the floor?"

"Um, yes," RJ said. He held out a hand to Lily, inviting her forward. "Lily, you'll be helping Alicia this morning. She will, at some point, find you an apron. And possibly some flip-flops.

"Marcus, Theo will be assisting you. Likewise," he said, eyeing their training gear again. It would do for the morning crowd. None of the stores were open yet anyway. And it would mark them as new, which, depending on how long they'd been away from "the real world," as Lily called it, could be profoundly useful.

"Casey," he continued, and the Red Ranger paused with the other half of Alicia's calzone inches from his mouth. Without moving a muscle, except presumably the ones used for breathing and standing upright, he managed to look supremely guilty. "I will require your participation in the kitchen."

"Oh, where all the food is?" Lily said, putting her hand on Casey's shoulder. "That'll be a real hardship for you. Leave some for the customers, okay?"

"Leave some for us," Theo corrected. "Are those breadsticks?"

"Want plates?" Alicia offered, wheeling easily around the kitchen. "You can set your food down that way. Take a bite, do a table!"

"Take a bite, do a lap," Marcus murmured.

"Plates for everyone," RJ announced. "And flatware. Or not. Drinks... or not. What you eat is completely up to you. As long as it's something we make. Where 'we' includes 'you,' of course; feel free to introduce menu items at any time."

"But--" Lily pointed at him. "Nothing named Kilimanjaro, right?"

Ah. They had been paying attention. He hadn't been so sure, yesterday. "Well," he said. "Not yet, anyway."

He smiled suddenly. "Maybe you'll be the one to invent it."


	3. Training Together

**Jungle Karma**

**by Starhawk**

**3. Training Together**

"I think," RJ decided, "that we should all sit down."

He sat where he was, because that seemed like the most auspicious choice. His new students didn't move--or rather, they did move, but it was more of a "glancing at each other" motion than a "sitting down" motion. Apparently they'd gotten over the "master" thing more quickly than he'd expected.

"Why?" Casey wanted to know.

"I thought we were going to be training," Theo said.

"Well..." RJ considered this. "I thought we were too." He smiled up at Theo. "And we are. So that works out."

"Are we meditating?" Lily asked, sitting down across from him. The others quickly sat between them, to either side, forming a sort of circle. Or a square. A square, really, since a circle didn't have any points. They seemed to have four.

"I don't know," RJ admitted after a moment. "Are you? I'm not. Unless what we call life is a grand meditation from which we may one day choose to open our eyes... In which case I guess you could say we're all meditating."

This time, no one said anything. He smiled again. "I thought we could begin with you telling me a little bit about your time with Pai Zhua. How long, how hard, did you like the uniforms? That sort of thing."

"I was at the school for six years," Theo said quickly. "Master Mao trained me personally. It was quite an honor."

"He trained me too," Lily added. "I was there for three years. Master Mao said I'm a quick study." She beamed angelically at Theo, who rolled his eyes in return.

It wasn't exactly what he was looking for, but if that was what they wanted to share... He turned an inquiring gaze on Casey, who looked a bit uncomfortable. "I, uh--" Casey looked down at the floor. "I just came to the school--this year, actually."

"They say the first year is the hardest," RJ assured him. He didn't miss the look Lily and Theo gave each other out of the corner of his eye. "Once you have the fundamentals, the rest is just... refinement, really."

"Yeah." Casey gave the others a guilty look. "I'm not, uh... I'm not sure I really have the fundamentals."

RJ looked at him thoughtfully. The cloud of doubt hanging over him was so palpable that it might as well be raining uncertainty. And under it was that funny fog, the one that almost conveyed things he wasn't saying--but not quite.

Not in harmony. Not like Lily, with the light radiating from her even when she didn't smile. Not like Theo, who looked like he was watching even when his eyes were closed. Casey was... dissonant, somehow. As if when he moved too quickly a little piece of his shadow couldn't quite keep up.

"Do you have trouble channeling your animal spirit?" RJ wondered.

Casey looked at the others again. "I guess you could say that," he muttered.

"Yes," Lily said. "Just sometimes. When he doubts himself, I mean. Because he can do it, he just doesn't always... remember."

She dipped her head, catching Casey's eye just as her gaze slid to RJ. He looked over her and Theo, wondering what they weren't saying--well, what they weren't saying that might be relevant--before lunging at Casey. Up off the ground, striking hand upraised, he knocked the tiger on his back with a hand around his throat.

And only a human face stared back at him, that vaguely disassociated confusion swirling around him. Like he'd left his shadow behind again. RJ sat back on his heels, studying Casey's expression.

"What was that for?" Casey asked, pushing himself up on his elbows. He looked wary, like he wasn't totally sure RJ was done. But he wasn't defensive. He didn't try to roll away or fight back or anything at all.

Lily got it, though. "I... I don't think he can call it for himself," she offered, only stumbling a little when they both turned to look at her. "At will, I mean. I think he has to do it--you know. On someone else's behalf."

RJ's gaze flicked to Theo, who held up his hands. "Oh, no," he said. "You've got the wrong guy. Trust me."

RJ rose, putting his hands behind his back as he turned away. He heard all three of them scrambling up after him. He pivoted on his heel and pointed at Casey. "What if I told you that you had to?" he suggested, curious. "If I said your friends were in danger, and this was the only way to keep them safe?"

"Wouldn't work," Casey said, clearly catching up. "They're not. You can't make me believe you'd really hurt them. And," he added with a rueful smile, "you've lost the element of surprise."

RJ's gaze slid over Casey's shoulder as Lily and Theo stepped up behind him. "It's not about surprise," he said. "It's about making sure they're safe with you. You know your lack of control compromises your ability to protect them."

Casey's expression darkened, and hey, look at that. He did get mad. RJ was careful not to smile. "Don't think," he advised. "Just do."

This time, his attack was met with a ferocious twist of feline grace that actually knocked him back a step. Maybe two, even, depending on how you counted it. And all of Casey came after him, to be forced to the floor by RJ's hold.

Until something raw and powerful and protective came, not from behind Casey or over his shoulder or around him but _through_ him. With a roar that wasn't at all unexpected--but its source was. It was Casey who was yelling. Not the tiger.

But it was the tiger. Interesting contradiction, RJ thought, letting go and waving him off when Casey whirled on him. It was the tiger, and it was not. It was Casey... and it was not. There was only one logical conclusion that a mind faced with such a set of facts could reach.

Casey didn't fight together with his animal spirit. Casey _was_ his animal spirit.

"That's good," he said aloud, and this time he did let himself smile. "I think we can work with that."


End file.
